Projects 1950's Tube Frame Sports Car

With the offset dowels I got the hole in the hogshead to swing about 0.008 total indicated runout (0.004 centerline difference between trans and crank). I know it should be a little less but it's WAY better than it was at 0.042! I drilled the bolt holes oversize to allow the dowels to move the trans down. When I have the engine out for a rebuild I'll fix it for good. The shims sticking out from under the bell are stainless Harley cam shims to take up the face run out of the adapter plate. You can see the numbers written in Sharpie next to each bolt hole in the adapter pic. Next I need to rebuild the back axle so I can determine my torque tube length.

 

I found a repop Isky firewall tag. It's the current address rather than the old Inglewood one but most people won't notice. Plus it's where my cam would have actually been ground in '77.

 

Spent a bunch of time fixing the photobucket hosted photos earlier on in this thread. Still have a few to fix but most of the early ones are back and embedded. There should be a special place in hell for both the greedy folks at Photobucket who have destroyed untold collective knowledge online this week and the lawmakers that allow stuff like that. Watermarking was bad enough but now obscuring all the photos is BS. How many members here who have passed on can't go back and fix their threads? So the rest of us just lose all that helpful info. OK, got that off my chest.

 

Here is a photo I snapped of a possible body idea... 46 Buick front fenders might be a starting point. Obviously they'd sit a little higher and the wheel well would have to be moved a bit.

 

Some of the blame needs to go to the person who posts for being in a hurry and not loading the originals and some also to the people that set up this site.
I frequent another forum, Shop Floor Talk, that is also powered by this same V whatever it is system and they will not allow photos from a secondary source for just this reason. The photos disappear and the knowledge is gone.

 

Good looking fender, do you have both sides?

 

Haha, I too have a few of those red polka dot welding caps... in a similar state of wear.

 

Yeah these days I agree with you but 4-5 yrs ago there was not the option of embedding the photos. I'd be ok with them making the change going forward but not obscuring photos from the past when they touted themselves as a free hosting site.

 

Yeah have both sides and the pieces off the doors that flow with the fenders. I plan to use those pieces set in further so it has a sort of early Kurtis look.

I love the Kromer hats!

 

Very interesting thread.Very good fab work too.Thank you for posting.I`ll saddle up and go along for the ride.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

Up til now the earliest reference to that slave cylinder setup I'm using has been the '58 Moon catalog. A friend found this 1955 Car Craft article last week. It's pretty neat that this puts it easily within the build period of my car which is 1954. I still haven't been able to track down the original application but I'm confident it isn't automotive or light truck.

 

Little update on my Merc-F1 slip in axle conversion/ safety hubs. I'll show some better pics when I have the machining finished on the axle bells. For now at least you know I'm still working away. This is the second version. I made a round one first that would have used the original Merc bearing retainers. I realized after finishing them that they didn't give me enough room to install the parking brake struts. I want to have the parking brake so I redesigned it to be square and made my own bearing retainers that have the same bolt pattern as the brake backing plate.

 

I plan to initially run the shocks that came on the car. They still seem to have good rebound damping. The old rubber bushings were shot though. I found these black urethane ones that should do the trick and look original.

 

Alright, prepare for a photo dump... I got the rear axle torn down. Hub puller worked great. Some crazy nasty grease inside. Washed everything up, removed the shackle bushing from the spring hangers, and cut off the old wheel bearing snouts.

 

Making internal mods for Mercury axle conversion. I have 4 nos 11 tooth spider gear coming. My axle must be a 1938 that got converted to hyd brakes as it had 12 tooth spiders. Those don't mesh right with the Spicer side gears. Carrier has some wear from the spider gears but I'm going to just run it.

 

Next I need to bore out the ends of the axle tubes for a seal and weld a fitting in the driver side tube for a ring gear thrust bolt/pad. I made this fixure plate to hang the axle housing off my Bridgeport. I'll take some pics once I start boring it out.

 

Also made up some new rear shock mounts out of 3" angle iron. They'll tuck the shocks up higher at the bottom end for exhaust clearance and the shocks will lean toward the center at and mount to the crossmember at about a 45 deh angle. Haven't made the new upper mount/tabs yet.

Plan is to get shock studs something like these to bolt into this mount.

Have to find some on the Bay.

 

These will be the rear "wishbones" or maybe more accurately trailing arms. The tie rod ends are nos Ford big truck. I turned up the threaded pieces that will be pressed into the tube and welded. The tube is Model A front wishbone tubing. Once I determine the length I'll cope the rear of the tube and weld the sleeve on. After welding I'll finish bore the sleeve and press the rubber bushing in. There will be two tabs welded on each axle tube so that the bushing is in double shear and held with a 5/8 bolt. If you remember I'll be running a telescoping torque tube made from a combination of Ford and Chevy pieces, much like a vintage sprint car or midget.

 

Just discovered this very interesting thread. Always had a soft spot for those 50s sports specials. Re body, maybe another option would be to find a period fiberglass body. There's a guy named Geoff Hacker who's on here (https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/members/g-hacker.19085/) and collects them - he's an expert on the subject and may have something which would fit your chassis and look right.

 

Yeah Geoff is a great guy and has cool stuff. He gets good $ for his old bodies. I've talked to him. At this point I'm thinking I'll have to design my own. The other thing with this car is it's only about a 94" wheelbase. Most of the early bodies were set up for 100".

 

Nice machine work! Looks like you are having fun with the project.

 

Perhaps you could strive to recreate the original builder's body, but make the fastback roof a lift-off unit. Just a thought...

Btw, I like where you're going with the Buick front fenders.

 

I really like that angle iron shock mount. It's simple, elegant, and functional.

 

That's something I hadn't thought of. Might be an option.

 

Thanks. I really was happy with how it turned out. They could be made longer too if someone with a more conventional setup wanted the shock attachment point lower.

 

Nice work! I love the fact you are fixing it rather than over restoring it with fancy paint and over the top mods that wouldn't be around in the past.

 

That's what I'm trying to do. It's a challenge because I tend to want to improve stuff as much as I can. How I'm managing that is by asking myself whether a guy who was a machinist could have done what I'm doing in 1953. Basically were the parts and technology available if he'd thought of it?

 

New carrier bearings.

Nos 11 tooth spiders Ford part# 81A-4215 used in Ford banjo 39 and up. My axle must be a 38 because it had 12 tooth spider gears in it. These can not be made to mesh correctly with side gears.


Fixture for trimming the teeth in the lathe so they mesh correctly with the Spicer 44 side gears.



Trimmed gear on the right. The tops of the teeth need to be cut down .040" so they don't bottom in the root of the side gears.

 

I got the inserts welded into the wishbone tubing for my rear radius arms.

 

Also welded bolts across the bearing races in the axle housings. Stood them up and used a piece of pipe to pound the races out from the far end. Worked great. Next is machining the outside end for the seal and final cleaning. Then they'll get temporarily bolted back to the center housing so I can mock up the axle location and tack on the trailing arm mounts.